As always, I have my eye on the queer parent athletes at the Olympics! Come meet them and see photos of their families! One met her future spouse when they were both 10 years old; the other is fighting for marriage equality in her home country.
There are two queer parent Winter Olympians I’m aware of this year (using OutSports’ list of out Winter Olympians as a starting point). Both are hockey players, one from Canada and one from the Czech Republic. Of course, some athletes are private about their queer identities and/or their families, and I respect that; there may be other queer parent Olympians I’ve missed. I’ll add them in if/when the information becomes public.
As I’ve said before, being queer can be tough; being a parent can be tough, and being either or both, while also maintaining elite-level athletic training, can be tougher still. I’ve always suspected, though, that developing strength and resilience in one area of life can help boost it in others, and queer parent athletes, summer or winter, just might be some of the toughest (yet tenderest) people around.
While I will of course root for my home team of the U.S.A., I’ll be keeping my eye on these players, too:
Canada’s Mélodie Daoust, 30, is already an Olympic gold medalist, having won in 2014, where she was youngest player on Canada’s National Women’s Team. She also won Olympic silver with them in 2018. Last year, she was part of Canada’s gold-winning World Championship team.
Daoust has been on the ice since she was 5, playing on boys’ leagues until she was 16. She attended McGill University, where she not only was a key part of their hockey team, but also earned a B.Ed. in Physical Education. She now works part time as a substitute teacher in addition to training for hockey.
She came out in 2013, after realizing she was in love with her friend Audrey St-Germain, whom she first met at a hockey camp when they were 10, according to a 2020 interview with Hockey Canada. After this first introduction, they met sporadically at hockey venues over the next few years, drifted apart in their teens, then re-connected, fell in love, had their son Mathéo in 2018, and married in 2019.
Daoust says she hasn’t experienced any bigotry while playing with Hockey Canada, noting, “We know that Hockey Canada is behind us and also is behind every player, whether they’re from different nationalities or have different skin colour or who you’re with in your personal life. And that makes it way easier to be who you are and open about it all.”
Here she is with St-Germain, teaching their son to skate. She’s also written some very thoughtful tips for hockey families (or families with kids in almost any sport) about how to keep the pressure low and the fun high.
The Czech Republic’s Aneta Lédlová, 25, is a first-time Olympian but a multiple World Championship gold medalist. Born in Kadan, Czech Republic, she has also played for the Ontario Hockey Academy and for Robert Morris University in Pennsylvania.
She wrote on her Facebook page in 2020 about her personal journey, explaining that she fell in love at 17 “with the most amazing person in the world” (translation by Facebook), but that she was afraid to tell anyone. Two months later, she summoned the courage to come out to her mother, who responded, “The main thing is to be happy. And don’t worry, I will always love you just the way you are.”
She and her love married two years later in Germany, where her wife is from, and where same-sex couples can legally wed. The Czech Republic only allows them to have registered partnerships, and she urged her Facebook followers to sign a petition to change that.
Here’s a photo of her family. The caption reads (thanks, Google Translate!) “This is what one needs the most. FAMILY.”